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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

ENRAGE BONER

So...I'm
still calling this post "Enrage Boner", but honestly after a deeper inspection, it's really only giving me an
"Enrage Half Chub". At first sight the Enrage mechanic looks like it's potential value could be amazing with the right engine. Drawing cards, doing direct damage and and an endless supply of 1/1 counters...really had me standing at attention. With the added advantage of making your opponent weigh the options of whether or not to attack. Will they just be supplying you with more cards and better creatures? That hesitation could give you advantage.

So let's take a look at the reality of the situation. How good are these engine gears? Do we have enough power to make it run on it's own accord, at a competitive pace? I'm taking a look specifically at the Enrage Engine and cards that specifically interact with it, not looking at what an "Enrage Deck" might consist of.

Gears:

Ok so first off we have our little raptor buddy pal who I personally would like as a pet...the thing is damn cute and I'm sure the ladies love it. I've heard some off handed dismissals of this guy, but its basic and potential values are extremely high. At a basic level this little guy can slow your opponents momentum by chump blocking and then, most likely, overpowering their creature with a 3/3 trample Dino. This will most likely slow their tempo because they wont want to give you that body early game. Then, by the grace of the almighty Jeebus, if you're able to pump this guy at all then you've got the potential to create 3/3 Trample token generator...not bad for a CMC of 2. Just imagine this as a waaaaay better Doomed Dissenter. People love that card and that doesn't come close to touching this little guy.

Ok, so a lot of the speculation as to if Enrage or Dino's in general going to work depends on whether you're going to have the mana to pull it off. The costs of your creatures and the spells you'll need to prime your engine are extremely heavy....and that's where something like Ranging Raptors does the trick. We should already be working with a deck that allows us to inflict small amounts of damage on our creatures and with text that reads "Put it onto the battlefield tapped", this definitely moves us closer to having enrage be a real thing. There are other ways to get the mana we need, but mana fixing with a body that can potentially do it every turn...seems real good to me.

Everybody seems pretty excited for this dude! We have a 4/5 for four that draws cards and looks like a badass. Last I checked it was going for $10 on TCGPlayer and has the potential to go higher...especially if someone can make this engine work. This is the card that will be supplying you with the spells and the mana you need to get the ball rolling and turn this into a perpetual or infinite engine. The defense and offense potential of this card is amazing without the line of text, but that just adds to the value. Got a winner here.

This is the goddamn dino that kills T-Rex in Jurassic Park III and for that alone, I'm not a fan. Besides that though, the flash is intriguing, but doesn't give your opponent the giant middle finger that you're hoping for on a flash creature...this isn't pumping or making your other creatures indestructible, it's just a 4/4 with potential to pump itself. Which isn't terrible, but I'm not seeing the value that we would need to make it a final part of the engine.

Next we have the Sun-Crowned Hunter. Straight off the bat we're able to see that if you're able to ding this guy repeatedly, you could do potentially 9 direct damage to your opponent every turn. That is pretty sick, but for 6 CMC and the potential to have a piece in place to do it....still though, you could attack or block and before you let it die you use your Walking Ballista to ping it 3 times and then it's still hopefully trading for one of their creatures and sending that final damage to send 12 directly straight to the face.....but you'll need that Ballista or something else in place to make it happen though....Well writing about it makes it sound pretty decent, so the potential is there, but I'm not sure about this one.

Finally we got the Big Dawg! This guy is really what has me rock solid. God damn! I mean I get it, the CMC is too damn high, but we have so many ways to deal with that...between your regular mana dorks, Ranging Raptors, Otepec Huntmaster and Oketra's Monument there are ways to get this 6CMC down to play on turn 5 or even 4....and with the right cards in place this has the potential to win the game immediately. Match this with Walking Ballista's and Winding Constrictor and it's goddamn game over. Not only that, but this will be providing all your other Enragers with more room to get off, getting you more tokens, cards or direct damage. It's basic value is just so good, that your opponent is going to be worried every time they see it hit the board. I have high hopes for this guy, but that all depends on the power, can we pull this off? So we've taken a look gears in the Enrage Engine, but it'll need stable and consistent mana and self inflicted damage to pull it off. I'm not sure if it is viable yet, but I'm willing to give it a chance and look at it further. Next time I'll be looking at the spells we'll be using to engage the enrage, after that I'll be seeing how and if they work together. Thanks for reading! Let me know if I missed anything and what you think about the Enrage mechanic? @devoinz